Our Team

Helping Your Child Experience the World Their Way with Guided Therapy Sessions

Sensory Jim & Friends is a pediatric therapy center that specializes in enabling children with sensory processing disorders and gross motor challenges to learn and grow through personalized sensory integration therapy.

Started by Dana Smith PT, DPT, an SI-PT with 20 years of experience, Sensory Jim & Friends works to change the lives of children one step at a time. Through passionate and family centered care, we provide effective strategies to guide your child to their goals, and increase the quality and enjoyment of day to day activities.

As the only physical therapist in the NY region with an advanced Sensory Integration and Praxis Testing Certification, Sensory Jim & Friends is uniquely suited to guide your child to overcoming sensory disorders, and achieving positive outcomes in their activities and interactions.

We work with children who were born with or have developed a neurological or musculoskeletal disorder that impacts sensory development and day to day function. We believe that every child deserves to experience the world the way it was meant to be discovered, on their own terms and through their own senses.

Dana R. Smith, PT, DPT, SIPT, CKPT

What about all of the initials

Initials after a name can be intimidating and confusing. In Dana’s case, they show the longstanding commitment and dedication Dana has to the field. Dana holds four degrees, including a BS in Kinesiology and Physical Therapy along with both a Masters and Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She has advanced training in pediatrics, myofascial release, vestibular/visual integration, and neurology/neuroplasticity, along with certifications in kinesotaping and sensory integration.

About Dana R. Smith

She initiated her career at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), a renowned Level II Trauma Center, located in the New York metro area.  She quickly gained tremendous experience and respect as a bedside physical therapist working with critically ill patients from cardiac and acute intensive care units. At HUMC, she was able to incorporate her medical knowledge and humor in medicine, while witnessing many patients recuperate.  Dana also established herself as a stellar wound care clinician aiding her patients, with physicians’ orders, for the care of burns, gangrene, gunshot wounds, Raynaud’s Phenomena, diabetic/peripeheral neuropathies and rare disorders such as Fournier’s Disease, to name a few.   Dana, an astute practitioner, was instrumental in saving the limbs of her patients on the verge of amputation. She was accredited for developing the wound care evaluation tool that her colleagues at HUMC utilized while assessing new patients.  She implemented the usage of hyperbaric oxygen for stubborn wounds with success. After a rewarding career with adults, Dana transitioned to her love of children and became a pediatric PT.

Today, Dana is unique among pediatric physical therapy doctors for several reasons. With over 20 years of experience, Dana is the leading Riverdale and Westchester County local pediatric physical therapist specializing in neuromotor and sensory integration, postural control, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has personally treated well over 800 children in her career.

In 2013, Dana opened her pediatric physical therapy practice, Westchester Pediatric Physical Therapy (home of Sensory Jim & Friends) in Riverdale, and has now settled into her new state of the art location in Scarsdale NY. Her practice was started to help children with sensory disorders and physical challenges learn and grow. Dana combines her extensive education in physical therapy and sensory integration to provide successful and thorough treatments aimed at improving the child’s quality of life across all settings.

Dana quickly and efficiently identifies when sensory impairments disturb a child’s natural gross motor development and works directly with the child and family to come to a solution that enables the child to live a healthy and happy life. Not only is she exceptionally qualified, Dana also recognizes the immense stress that the parents and family members are under, in addition to the challenges that the children themselves face. In addition to her direct physical therapy approach, Dana is frequently called upon to consult with and lecture to educators and others on the subjects of sensory integration and neuromotor maturation and their role in future academic success.

As Dana continues to impact the lives of her patients, her greatest accomplishment will always be their attainment of each monumental step designed for the adaptation to the world as they know it…. to Change Lives One Step At A Time.

Dr. Dana’s accomplishments:

  • Certified by the administration of Sensory Integration and Praxis Test  (SIPT).
  • Lectured at the 2001 American Physical Therapy Association’s Combined Sections Meeting on the topic, ‘The New Hats PT’s Wear”
  • Participated in Dr. Lucy Jane Millers Intensive Mentorship in Diagnosis and Treatment of Sensory Processing Disorders
  • Trained by renowned Sensory Integration clinicians, Zoe Mallioux, Susanne Smith Roley, Shelley Lane, and Roseann Schaaf, in the field
  • Advanced practitioner and trainer of Integrated Listening Systems (iLs)
  • Created a webinar introducing physical therapists to iLs for improved brain function and supervises many iLs home programs
  • Lectures on the topic of “Sensory Processing for Educators” to raise awareness and identification of common behavioral patterns associated with children suffering from Sensory Process Disorders. This also includes providing classroom strategies to help these children reach their maximal potential.
  • Certified Kinesio Taping Practitioner.